Originally Posted by Trumpy
And this just goes to show why underground cables in the UK are required to have steel wire armouring at earth-potential in them.
One of them spikes would have merely blown a fuse, alerting someone to the fact that the cable had been damaged in the first place.
Irregardless of the fact that the cable was laid far too shallow.


Well since the incident happened in England this would mean the cable was not suitable for its use. An RCD, even if only 500mA would likely have prevented this though.

Is there a required minimal burial depth for underground cables in the UK? In all countries I know it's 60cm which isn't that far below the alleged 18-20" working range of the spikes.